1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to airfoils and, more particularly, to optically determining an angle of attack using light detection and ranging (LIDAR).
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern high performance aero-elastic machines, such as wind turbines or high performance aircraft, it is becoming increasingly important to control the aerodynamic forces in conjunction with the aero-elastic response through active manipulation. Such control may be accomplished not only by aerodynamic means (e.g., adjusting an angle of one or more flaps on a profile section of either a wind turbine blade or an airplane wing), but also by, for example, controlling the pitch of the blade or the rotational speed of the wind turbine rotor.
In state of the art controls, sensory signals are often generated from a structure's deflection properties by strain gauges, displacement sensors, or accelerometers. Although these are robust methods, these signals are filtered to the natural response frequencies for the structure, which are orders of magnitude slower than the aerodynamic response. As the control methods become more and more sophisticated, the demand for real-time understanding of the input forces may lead to substantial improvements to the control strategies and their impact on managing the structure.